First Batch is Fermenting

I was just posting to introduce myself, and admit that some buddies and I have been caught by the brewing bug. This past saturday I bought myself a brewers best equipment kit and the BB American Micro Pale Ale kit. The actual brew went off without a hitch, besides for somethings that I was not sure about. I made the mistake of using a wood spoon when i was boiling the wort, but after realizing what i had done, i switched to a sterlized plastic stir when i added the yeast. Also i did not have an external thermometer handy so it was all just eyeballed. For instance when steeping, the directions said until it was on the verge of a boil, so i just did it like that. I did not have any problems with boil over, but i will credit that to consistent stiring and using a boiling pot that was at least 6 gallons while only boiling 2. Everything looks to be working fine, the airlock is bubbling and I am excited to bottle it. I just pray to god that its not bitter and everything worked out in the end.


I am looking at doing a brew a weekend or something along those lines. Can anyone suggest some recipes or kits for seasonal beer, i already know I am going to try and find a holiday recipe for the upcomming holiday season.


Kind of a long winded first post, but if anyone has any other advice or links/sites that i should check out, I would love to see them.

Welcome!
You don't need to worry about the wooden spoon in your boiling wort. You only have to be careful and sanitize any equipment that comes in contact with the cooled wort once the boil is completed. The wooden spoon didn't hurt anything.

ok ive got another quick question it has been 48 hours since the wort was put into the fermentor with the yeast, and the bubling has been consistent of like one big bubble a second, should it be moving faster than that or since it has been a consistent bubbling, should it be ok

Welcome! I just started brewing in the past month as well and did my first 5 gallon this weekend. It was a Holiday spiced ale with cinnamon, orange peels, and ginger. I can post the entire recipe I used if you would like... or you can buy "Complete Joy of HomeBrewing", a must have book, and it has a recipe similar to what I brewed.

As for 1 bubble per minute, it seems a little slow/low, but it very well may speed up as the yeast multiply; mind you I can only speak from one real batch, but I have about 20 bubbles per minute a day after brewing?

SilkkyBrew said:

Welcome! I just started brewing in the past month as well and did my first 5 gallon this weekend. It was a Holiday spiced ale with cinnamon, orange peels, and ginger. I can post the entire recipe I used if you would like... or you can buy "Complete Joy of HomeBrewing", a must have book, and it has a recipe similar to what I brewed.

As for 1 bubble per minute, it seems a little slow/low, but it very well may speed up as the yeast multiply; mind you I can only speak from one real batch, but I have about 20 bubbles per minute a day after brewing?

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it was 1 bubble maybe every 2 or so seconds so that equals out to around 30 so that must be right

Big Red Fan Welcome-

By Big red are you meaning the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers?

Just curious, always on the look out for fellow brewers near me.

You are fine with the amount of bubbles per min. It all depends on your yeast health and how many billon cells are active. When you are around a bubble a min then you may want to pay attention to the Krausen (crap on top of beer) and when that has fallen to the bottom of the fermenter then it is time to either rack to secondary or bottle, which ever one you are doing.

Reverend

Go Big Red!

as a matter of fact i am a student at UNL...


are there any good home brewing clubs in lincoln or anything along those lines.

I bought my kit from kirks brew on 11th and cornhusker

one other thing how will i know when my krausen has dropped as i have a bucket and not a carboy, making it impossible to see without taking the lid off

Kirk is pretty helpful isn't he.

It will be hard to tell when the krausen falls when using a bucket. i would just wait until the bubbles get to about 1 every 30 seconds or even a min and then just crack the lid a bit and peek.

Ok sounds like a plan, right now my tenative date is sunday for bottling, just because of things going on with school and whatnot, but even if it does slow by say friday night, waiting until sunday and having it spend that extra time in the primary will not hurt it will it

BigRedFan said:

as a matter of fact i am a student at UNL...


are there any good home brewing clubs in lincoln or anything along those lines.

I bought my kit from kirks brew on 11th and cornhusker

one other thing how will i know when my krausen has dropped as i have a bucket and not a carboy, making it impossible to see without taking the lid off

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Bummer. I was hoping Big Red meant UW Badgers. Oh well, welcome anyway!

BigRedFan said:

Ok sounds like a plan, right now my tenative date is sunday for bottling, just because of things going on with school and whatnot, but even if it does slow by say friday night, waiting until sunday and having it spend that extra time in the primary will not hurt it will it

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will not hurt it one bit.